Iceland {Part II}

Day 3

• Head East along Ring Road for more waterfalls, beaches, cliffs, and glaciers
• Visit Skogafoss (waterfall), Dyrholaey (coastal bird sanctuary and cliffs), Reynisfjara (black sand beach), Vik (beach town)
• Camp in Skaftafell National Park

Fun facts:

• In Icelandic LL is pronounced TL and J is pronounced Y as in 'yes'. Now you can say Eyjafjallajokull!
• Foss means waterfall and jokull means glacier!

view of Eyjafjallajokull from our campsite. 

beautiful day

approaching Skogafoss

perch, rainbow

river above the foss

Dyrholaey coastal bird sanctuary

basalt arch

basalt caves at low tide

Reynisfjara black sand beach

the town of Vik

lunch spot

Bacon Man means hot water is nearby

first views of Skaftafellsjokull

campsite in Skaftafell National Park

Day 4:

• Pack up camp, morning hike in the park, hit the road.
• See Svartifoss, Skaftafellsjokull, and Jokulsarlon glacial lagoon.
• Drive some of the East fjords.
• Camp in the highlands, in Iceland's largest forest.

Svartifoss in the distance

Vatnajokull glacier tongue in the background

onward to the glacier lookout point

thar she blows

glacier at eye level

on to Jokulsarlon glacial lagoon

the blue glow of the ice was enchanting

we watched many of these ice blocks float right out into the ocean 

back on the road, when suddenly...

 ...I whine about being hungry, prompting C to look for a place to stop so we can cook up some lunch. He chooses a random turn off - a dirt patch with a decent view (which, frankly, irks me because there are tons of nice rest stops with picnic tables all over the place and I'd rather not squat in the dirt to cook if we don't have to). He parks and jets off down the hill, out of sight, to stretch his legs as L and I get lunch going. Not 2 minutes later he comes sprinting back to the car with something to show us...

...tada! Personal, secluded hot pots with changing area and everything. 

positively serendipitous

Fossardalur

Lagarfljot, home to the famous worm monster (think Loch Ness)

We camped near this lake but, somehow, I neglected to take a picture of our campsite; maybe because it was fuhreeezing up in the highlands or maybe because Iceland's largest forest (4600 acres!) didn't impress these Colorado denizens quite enough. Surely it was the former. Although, even the humble Icelanders joke that a person lost in one of their forests should simply stand up to find their way out. Ha!

More to come.